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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. (Amen.)
The story is told, in a longer form than I will repeat it now, of a children’s Christmas pageant with multiple four‑year‑old Marys, Josephs, angels, and shepherds. Apparently in rehearsal, on the floor, the director had drawn chalk circles to mark where the angels were to stand and chalk crosses to mark where the shepherds were to stand. But, during the performance, when the angels were on their circle marks in their white robes with their big gauze wings, the shepherds in their burlap sacks with crooks in their hands could not find their cross marks. One particularly‑frustrated four-year‑old shepherd is said to have turned to their director standing offstage and declared in a whisper heard by everyone, “Because of these blankety-blank angels, I cannot find the cross!” (He supposedly did not say “blankety-blank”, but we are in Church, and you get the idea.) The story is said to make the point that the romantic elements of Christmas, such as the multitude of angels, can obscure the importance of the holy-day, particularly the message of the cross. Of course, in today’s Gospel Reading appointed for Christmas Day, there are no angels or shepherds, nor is there even Mary or Joseph. Today’s Gospel Reading is still an account of our Savior’s birth, but, instead of what we might usually think of, we have what has been called “some of the most beautiful and important theological language ever written”. (Sermons.com.) Considering today’s Gospel Reading this morning, we realize that “The Word became flesh that we might become children of God”.
If we are trying to impress someone with a gift that we have given, we might emphasize how much time and effort went into the gift, from our first having the gift idea to our finally giving the gift. In today’s Gospel Reading, God is not trying to impress us, but we still might take note of, as it were, His time and effort! As we heard in the Gospel Reading, in the beginning, the Word—that is, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity—already existed, and that Word was with God the Father as a distinct person, and yet that Word was of the same substance, or nature, as God the Father, not to mention of the same substance, or nature, as God the Holy Spirit. We know from elsewhere that God the Father had already chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4), and, after humankind’s Fall into sin, God slowly revealed what was coming: the Offspring of the woman would bruise the serpent’s head; the Son of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, David—the Son of a virgin, born in Bethlehem—would die and rise for us. Then, after thousands of years, as we heard in the Gospel Reading, the Word became flesh.
The Word became flesh. The flesh—the body and soul—that we become, when we are born of our parents’ bloods and the will of their flesh, is, from the moment of our conception, sinful (confer Psalm 51:5), but usually we would say that the flesh that the Word became had no original sin nor any sort of other sin of His own. For example, the Divinely‑inspired St. Paul writes that He, Who knew no sin, was made to be sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21). We may think of the Word’s taking on the sins of the world at some other distinct point in time, for example, at Jesus’s Baptism: we might say that He was baptized in order to take on our sin, so that we can be baptized in order to take on His righteousness. Yet other people say that, when the Word became flesh, then He took on the sins of the world, and perhaps there is nothing wrong with one’s thinking that that is when Jesus took on the sins of the world, provided that one recognizes both that sin is not an essential part of our human nature and that Jesus Himself was without sin (confer Hebrews 4:15), and so He could be the spotless Lamb of God sacrificed for our original and actual sin, in order to save us from the present and eternal punishment that we otherwise deserve.
To be sure, in becoming flesh, the Word did not become as we are by nature, that is, ignorant of God the Father and hostile to Him, in need of His law to show us our sin and His Gospel to save us. Rather, the Word‑become‑flesh personally and through His ministry makes known to us God the Father, calling and thereby enabling us to repent: to be sorry for our sin and to trust God to forgive us for His sake. To those who do so repent, to those who receive Him, He gives the right—the power or the authority, maybe better the “privilege”—to become children of God. That is why the Word became flesh! To some extent, we should maintain a sense of mystery here (confer 1 Timothy 3:16): there are three Blessed Persons in the one Holy Trinity, and yet only One of those Persons takes in a human nature, is forsaken by the Father, suffers, dies, and rises; the Divine and human natures are personally united in the Son of God, and the two natures interpenetrate, yet they also, in some sense, remain distinct. How exactly all that happens remains a mystery! But, all that happens for us! Out of God’s great love, mercy, and grace, the Word‑become‑flesh lived the perfect life that we fail to live, and the Word‑become‑flesh paid the price for our failure to live that life. Jesus needed to be both Divine and human in order to save us. Elsewhere St. Paul writes that we who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, Jesus reconciled in His body of flesh by His death (Colossians 1:22). Today’s Epistle Reading describes how Jesus sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high after making purification for sins (Hebrews 1:1-12). And, today’s Old Testament Reading describes how the Lord’s redeeming His people comforts us (Isaiah 52:7-10).
“The Word became flesh that we might become children of God”, and most of us first became children of God at the Baptismal Font. In Holy Baptism, we are born of God, born from above, by water and the Spirit (John 3:3, 5). As St. Paul wrote elsewhere, in love God predestined us for this adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ (Ephesians 1:4-5). In Holy Baptism, God’s Triune Name is put upon us, and, in Holy Absolution, we, who confess to our pastors the sins that we know and feel in our hearts, individually are forgiven in that same Triune Name. So absolved, we are admitted to the Holy Supper of bread that is Christ’s Body and wine that is His Blood given and shed for us for the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. In the Holy Supper, we share in the Divine life. In the Holy Supper, we can say what St. John says elsewhere, that we have touched that which was from the beginning (1 John 1:1). The Word‑become‑flesh gives us the same flesh that was conceived in the Virgin Mary, lay in the manger, hung on the cross, rested in the tomb, rose from dead, ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father. As Jesus Himself said, His flesh is true food, and His blood is true drink, and unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you, but whoever feeds on His flesh and drinks His blood has eternal life, and He will raise that person up on the last day (John 6:53-55).
The Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ truly does strengthen and preserve us in body and soul to life everlasting. Apparently, Joseph died, and Mary survived her widowhood. According to tradition, eleven of the apostles were martyred, but St. John lived to an old age and died a “natural” death. Likewise God will bring us through whatever trials and afflictions that He in His wisdom permits us to face in this life, and then we will live eternally with Him free from such trials and afflictions. He Who still shares our human flesh will come and, if necessary, raise our human flesh and, certainly, glorify it for eternity with Him.
If we let them, the romantic elements of Christmas, such as the multitude of angels, truly can obscure the importance of Christmas, particularly the message of the cross, but the Word’s becoming flesh certainly included the Virgin Mary, Joseph, a number of shepherds, and a multitude of the heavenly host—in reality, not simply in a pageant. If not the frustrated four‑year‑old whom I mentioned at the beginning, then, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we have realized that “The Word became flesh that we might become children of God”. Thanks be to God, now and forever!
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen. + + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +